ASPEN — — Roaring Fork Transportation Authority bus riders won’t see the formal debut of the agency’s rapid-transit service for more than a year, but already commuters who ride RFTA regularly are getting a taste of what’s to come — talking buses, for example.

Construction has begun on some of the 13 stations that will be part of RFTA’s rapid-transit service, to be called VelociRFTA. The buses themselves are being prepared for the service as RFTA puts the new system in place in phases.

When the system is officially put into service in the fall of 2013, RFTA hopes to have worked out some of the potential kinks, according to CEO Dan Blankenship. That’s because components of the technological upgrades that are key to the system are going in now.

“This process is a major, major effort on our part to upgrade the technology we use at RFTA,” Blankenship said.

The technology, already in use with other bus systems, is on the “leading edge” and a big advance for RFTA, he said.

“It gives us some capabilities we’ve never had before,” Blankenship said.

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